Felipe Massa explained that Ferrari's lack of pace on Tuesday morning was due to a need to do aerodynamic analysis on the F138.

While many eyes were on Mercedes after Lewis Hamilton's crash early in the day, Massa went through most of the morning without setting a representative lap time and was propping up the timesheets for the first half of the day. Massa said that the team had to carry out constant speed aero tests to analyse new parts and as a result he never got the opportunity to put together a quick lap time.

"Today, we concentrated 100% on the aerodynamic side and on the exhausts," Massa said. "In the morning, I didn't even do a flying lap because we used the time available to do constant speed runs and to analyse various aerodynamic solutions.

"All the changes to the car took longer than planned, but in the afternoon, I managed to do three long runs which were very important in order to understand which direction we need to follow in the coming days."

Massa will again drive the Ferrari on Thursday before development driver Pedro de la Rosa takes over on Friday.